A critical review of local and world news. This blog originally commented on the Moncton Times and Transcript but has enlarged its scope.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Jan.22: The living dead of the Irving press.

Just a quick look at
the Irving press.

Page A4 has a big
story that Progressive Conservative MLAs are waiting before endorsing
a leadership candidate. So bloody what? Let them wait.

On A5, a New
Brunswick veteran has a war relic, a fragment of metal, he thinks is
worth keeping. I think it is, too. But it's none of my business or
of anybody's except the veteran. And now that I have that piece of
information, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it. Oh, and a
local restaurant should finish its renovations in about two weeks.
Be still, my heart.

And that's it for
the news.

The editorial has
nothing of significance to say about food banks. It's final sentence
is a common and useless one in editorial writing. In translation, it
says, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.

Cole Hobson's
commentary is, as usual, not a commentary but just cutesy little
story.

Alec Bruce has some
sensible ideas for what governments and institutions should be doing
in New Brunswick. But it gets vague on how this should be done.

There's an excellent
guest column on why the provincial budget must look after the needs
of N.B.'s poor. It's one of those rare columns to say that government
that it exists to look after the needs of our society, not just to
find ways of cutting budgets. It was written by Joanne Petitpas and Pauline Richard represent the New Brunswick Common Front for Social Justice.

A special thank you
to Norbert Cunningham for making this intelligent column possible by
going on leave.

Then there's Brian
Murphy. There is certainly nothing objectionable in his remembrance
of a Roman Catholic priest from Moncton. The only part of his work I
am familiar with is the creation of St. Patrick's Recreation Centre
of which I am an admirer. But…

….the general
theme of Mr. Murphy's columns is that he sees only good wherever he
looks. I have yet to see anything critical in any of his columns.
Mr. Murphy is everybody's friend. In short, these columns appear to
be written to benefit Mr. Murphy as Moncton's see not evil, hear no
evil, speak no evil sweetheart. A commentary is supposed to stimulate
our thinking, not to be self-serving for the writer.

And an “everybody's” friend is nobody's friend but his own.

Canada and World
section is really dismal. There is no world. And the stories that are
carried are the usual trivial ones. It takes a quarter of a page to inform us
that that Peter MacKay says there's plenty of time for a leadership
bid. (The world holds its breath.)

There's a half page to say Dennis Oland's appeal is expected to take months. One sentence
would have been enough to tell us that. The big question the paper might deal with is
– How common is it for a poor or even middle class person to be
able to string out a trial for year, and to get relatives willing to
put up a million in bail for them?

People are being
starved to death and being murdered daily in Yemen. The U.S. and
Britain are supplying the bombs, even though both are signatories to
an agreement not to sell weapons to states with bad human rights
records. And Saudi Arabia is among the worst. ( And, of course,
Canada is selling it armoured cars.)

There's serious
trouble developing between Pakistan and a faction of the Taliban.
Saudi Arabia could be heading to a collapse. In Africa and Latin
America, children as young as seven are working in the depths of
mines owned by western corporations – in which a Canadian role is
prominent. The death rate of those children, especially in Africa, is
high. The U.S. carries out illegal drone attacks and special ops
assassinations almost every day. But those are rarely mentioned.

The U.S. was
carrying out torture in prisons rented all over the world. Is it
still doing that? How come we've scarcely heard a word about Bernie
Sanders in the Democrat leadership race, even though he's proving to
be a real challenge to Hillary Clinton?

The U.S. has taken
over an air base in Syria – even though that's illegal under
international law. Israel has begun destroying Palestinian homes in a
piece of Gaza that it intends to take from Palestine. Also illegal.

That means there's
no proof he did. In fact, there was really no trial, certainly not a
legal one in which there were witnesses. Can you imagine a Moncton
judge finding a person guilty of crossing on a red light and fining
that person despite a lack of witnesses who saw it happen? Can you
imagine that judge saying, “We have no proof. But I think it likely
you crossed on a red light. Fine $500."

Did Putin approve of
the murder of a Russian spy? I have no idea. Of course, it's
possible. But the whole idea of Britain holding such a 'trial' is
pure propaganda.

It could be a starting point for an interesting series. Does Obama approve all the killings
by drones? Of course he does. Did he approve of the murder of Osama
Bin Laden? Of course. Does the British government approve of the
killings by its 'James Bonds'? Sure. But when a British agent does
it, it's because he has a license to kill. Remember? And that not
evil. That's romantic. And, when it comes to such assassinations,
Britain takes a back seat to no-one – except the U.S.

The U.S. routinely
assassinates people in Latin America. Of course, Obama approves it.
Under recent American law, the U.S. president has the right to order
the killing of people, including U.S. citizens. And I h ave never
seen a denial that he does it. Surely, even a sleepy village paper
like the Irving press must know that.

Page C4 has a
thought-provoking column on our tendency to conform. It's by student
columnist Mhairi Agnew. Conformity seems a natural human trait
arising from a desire to be accepted. Just today, I watched a bit of
a film (a very old – 1940 or so) bad one. I noticed how, in every
scene, somebody was smoking a cigarette or lighting one. Everyone was breathing clouds of smoke. And everyone
was constantly having a glass of liquor – always good stuff, and
always while wearing tux or evening gown. This is a prime example of
how the tobacco and liquor industries used conformity to encourage
smoking and drinking.

They paid
fim-makers to show that smoking and drinking were what sophisticated
people did all the time. This conditioned a rising middle class to
see drinking and smoking as desirable, encouraging the middle class
to see these as desirable conformities for themselves.

But I would caution
Miss Agnew not to get her hopes up for university. Academics have
their own conformities. After all, they're just human. As a working
class boy who never really caught on to academic conformities, I
always found this the unpleasant part of universities.

Apart, then, from three commentaries, including the student one, this
paper is beneath contempt.

There is nothing on
the militia standoff in Oregon. This is about as illegal as it gets.
A couple of weeks ago, 150 heavily armed men occupied a government
building, and have defied the police and the army. (Their number has
since increased.)

Imagine what would
happen if you and some friends bought guns, then openly took over
say, the courthouse, defying the government to do anything about it.
This is more than breaking the law. This is more than death threats.
This is armed rebellion.

And nothing has
happened. If the government is unwilling to shoot them (after all,
they are white and Christian), it would surely be an easy matter to
blockade the building, cut off electricity and supplies, and starve
them out.

But it hasn't done
anything. Why not?

Well, there's the
white and Christian aspect. There's also the element that very large
numbers of Americans and, more importantly, of big American money in
the arms industry, support the concept of such a rebellion. This is a
nation in hysteria. A forceful ending this rebellion could cause similar acts
all across the U.S., and nobody can guess the consequences of that.

Action can and
should be taken. These 'militia' should all be facing long jail
sentences. But I don't think long jail sentences are going to
happen. They would happen if these were African Americans or Muslim
Americans. But they's jes' folks.

I think the damage is done. And this is one more step, probably a big
one, in the collapse of American society.

Ralph Nader has an
interesting summary of why the U.S. is a failing democracy, and why
it probably doesn't matter who wins the election. He mentions the
multi-billionaire Koch brothers who stand very tall in the U.S. - and
in Canada.

I fear we may have passed the point in Canada, too, at which peaceful
change can be made. The billionaires won't allow it.

Here's an
interesting story from Britain. A study shows that 60% of all alcohol
sold is sold to problem drinkers. Now, there's a project for the
Irving press to look at. I have read a good deal about booze in the
Atlantic provinces in history. Back in the 1850s, it was typical for
whole families, including babies to be blasted on weekends. 100 proof
rum (50% alcohol) from the West Indies was cheap. Stores commonly
had an open barrel of the stuff so that clients could enjoy free
booze while shopping. And, across Canada, when the minister came to
call, it was basic politeness to give him a shot. That must have meant
early to bed for clergy worn out by a day of visiting the sick and
the frail.

And here's an
opinion on a matter I can't call seeing in the Irving press, the
poisoning of the water supply of a whole city in Michigan. ( Is this,
perhaps, too delicate a matter to be discussed in New Brunswick?)

The following item
is from a socialist news organization. But the information it quotes
is not from a socialist source. It is from UN reports. It includes
abuses by all sides in the middle east. But the point is it began
with the first Gulf war when Bush Sr. was president.

Life in the middle
east has become a horror, with just about everybody sharing blame for
it. But the disruptive force, the one that started this descent into
hell, was the American imperialism begun in the the first Gulf war,
then enormously made worse by the American invasion of Iraq.

This topic of social
disruption is one I have to remember for my Sunday blog.

And here's another
story you won't find in the Irving press. Israel's ruthless expansion
onto Palestinian territory has nothing to do with Judaic evil. It is
heavily criticized by Jews in Israel and here in North America. But
never even mentioned in the Irving news. It has nothing to do with
Judaism at all. It has to do with the greed of the wealthy – which
is pretty common in all religions.

By the way, you may notice a flicker in the corner of your screen
when you connect with the home page for Information Clearing House.
The flicker is the disappearance of the daily report of Americans
killed by their own police. ICH runs it, but a thoughtful national
government hacker intervenes so we don't see anything that might be
upsetting.

Al Jazeera is
remarkable for its depth and accuracy of news coverage – and for
its opinions. Guess where the world's worst income inequality is.
It's a region in which big Canadian capitalism is prominent. It's
Latin America.

Then there's this
piece on the opinions of Noam Chomsky, who never makes it into the
Irving press because he's only published a hundred books and has
world status as an intellectual. Nope. We get Richard Saillant
stuffed down our throats.

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About Me

born into poverty in Montreal. (1933 was a bad year to be born.) Kicked out of school in grade 11. Became factory hand, office boy.
Did a general BA, mostly at night at Sir George Williams University, and partly while a youth worker for YMCA, camps, etc. Then teacher training at McGill.
Taught gradea 7 to 11 for six years. Loved it.
Quit to do MA at Acadia, then PhD (History) at Queen's.
Taught history three years at UPEI, then some 35 years at Concordia U in Montreal.
Loved the teaching. Thought the profs had more pompous and useless asses among then than is really desirable outside a zoo.
work experience:
factory, office,social group work, office,camp director, teacher.
Radio - c. 3000 broadcasts, mostly current events.
TV - many hundred appearances, mostly commentaries.
Film - some writing, advising, voice-overs.
Writing - no count, some hundreds. Some academic, but mostly for popular market, and ranging from short stories to stories to newspaper and magazine columns to history books.
professional speaker - close to 2000.
Awards for the above? yep